God intends us to live free from fear. Second Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Yet in our culture, we have been programmed to fear. Some fears – like fear of sickness or death – are felt more acutely and often drive our behavior. Others are more subtle, yet can still drive our behavior. For example, condemnation is actually fear of rejection by God, and if we’re feeling unworthy we won’t feel empowered to possess the promises of God. Some of us are also tormented by a fear of a prior fear returning, which creates an open door towards that very end! All fear is from the enemy and preventing you from living in God’s fullness. Tune in to this episode to discover the keys to freedom.
This sermon – a special extended episode – is the entire first sermon in the eight-part MP3 series, Grace to Overcome Fear.
Additional Resources
Grace to Overcome Fear full series
The Two Kinds of Righteousness – by E.W. Kenyon
Cindy Jacobs
Dutch Sheets
Chuck Pierce
Transcript
The Lord’s been speaking to me about in our fight of faith over various things that we inevitably encounter in life. The inevitability of trials is something that takes Christians forever to learn. Somehow their glimpse of heaven as spoiled them to reading the New Testament in the light of warfare that constantly goes on. And when a strange thing happen, we often say, why is this strange thing happening to me? When the Word says, Think it not strange my brethren when fiery trials come against you. Somehow we have the mindset that if we’re going through difficulties then either God’s mad at us, or we’ve done some horrible thing that’s opened the door to the devil. And the sooner we shed ourselves of those traditional grave clothes, the happier life will be. Because the Bible doesn’t promise you happiness. It promises you joy, and joy is sustained through all difficulties and trials, if we look not at the things which are seen, but look at the things which are unseen. After you learn this and you begin to renew your mind to who you are in Christ, you begin to use the word of God effectively.
Many people notice that they’ve never realized the subtlety of the attacks of fear that come against them and of course I want to start with a familiar passage, which is Second Timothy 1:7. Familiar verse. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. This great statement, you know, I would have to say that I’m familiar with that. I can talk about it, teach about it, blah, blah, blah. But the reality is God intends us to actually live free from fear. And it’s so normal among people that we don’t even realize that we’ve been programmed to fear. Shyness is programmed fear. It is many, many things that are really fear programmed.
And the Lord’s really been showing me that in the area of healing, controlling your imagination and your thoughts is very essential, because there’s an army of demonic forces, working to bring fear into your life. And I heard Kenneth Copeland say something that I thought was brilliant. And he said, fear tolerated is faith contaminated. Good nugget. We all want to be free of contaminated faith. One of the things we can do to facilitate that is ask the Holy Spirit to show us any place that we’re giving place to fear. Say for example, if you’re believing for your husband to be turned around, and walk with God, or your wife to have an encounter with God, or your children to meet with God or whatever it is you’re believing. For healing, financial needs. Whatever you’re believing for, there is a systematic fear attack coming against you. And much of it, you don’t see ’til you realize what you’re giving place to in your mind. You don’t realize or you don’t recognize that fear is coming against you. And fear tolerated. Is faith contaminated.
So we don’t want to tolerate fear if it’s a great enemy to us receiving what we’re looking to God for. So we have to uproot it. But now the good news is, God ordained it for us to do that. To be conformed to the image of Christ, and have power, love and a sound mind controlling us. But I want to back up a little bit on this. I’m really actually getting a little ahead here. Back up to Hebrews chapter two, verse 14, In as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death, he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Now sometimes I think much of the church really doesn’t understand this, but from the time of the fall, till the time of Christ’s resurrection, fear had access to man through the power of death. You remember the garden, you know? God had said, The day you eat of this you shall die. And the devil’s lie was, You shall not surely die. Direct contradiction of what God said. And the Lord released Adam to death, both physical and spiritual. It says here had the dominion of it until the resurrection was the devil. And so the fear of death is the root fear, you know. People. Amazing, how much they’ll change if they’re threatened with death, you know. When people get the word that they’ve got a terminal disease, it’s amazing how they begin to reevaluate their values and things, because that fear drives them.
And it says he had the power of death. It’s an interesting Greek word. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the only place where this word isn’t used of God or the saints. It’s the word kratos, which means dominion, the power to subdue. It’s a very strong word and it says he had the power to subdue with death, and then use the fear of death to control people.
So uprooting fear in your life is is one of the most powerful things that can happen. And I’m finding myself catching all kinds of fears. You might have fear of man, you might have fear of all kinds of things in life. You know, “Well, I could never do that.” What is that? That’s a fear. And so when you find yourself thinking fear thoughts, you can take authority over them and subdue them. And we should because God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. He’s given us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. I find myself saying, I don’t have to fear when I catch one of those thoughts. No, I refuse that. I’m not going to fear. The idea here is that the power of death was held by Satan, and he no longer has the right to torment us with fear. To motivate us to stand up against the subtle thoughts that come. “I got a job interview, and I’m afraid.” Anything in life that’s there. You know, you’ve got these ideas and you say, “No, I am delivered out of the authority of darkness. I have been translated into the kingdom of God’s Son. And you say “I’m not going to accept fear.”
Now, the fascinating thing is in the walk of faith, sometimes you have to affirm something while you’re feeling the opposite. You say, “I am free from fear,” and you find yourself feeling afraid. Well, one of the things you should recognize is your fears or your emotions are not necessarily reality. What’s true in your spirit is what’s true. We’ve all, as I say, been conditioned to fear. But I believe it’s time that we take a stand against fear and not allowing fear to intimidate, to dominate, to keep us away from… How many things do you think godly people have not entered into because of fear? That God had ordained for them to walk in? I mean, it would be probably horrendous if we do.
So he says, For indeed he does not give aid to the angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Let’s back up to verse 15. Well, let’s back up to verse 14. That through death, he might destroy. Now, I don’t know why the King James or the New King James translated the word destroy. It doesn’t mean destroy. It means render powerless, which is so much more tells the story, because the devil isn’t destroyed, but he’s powerless to us if we’ll take our place. And so he says, who had the power of death and dominion of death that is the devil and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
The whole unsaved humanity is living in fear. They don’t know it. And most Christians when they get born again, they find themselves released in some measure, but what we’re really talking about here is renewing our mind to what belongs to us, which is freedom from fear. The bondage here is better translated slavery. That slavery there to fear is something that so many of us still need deliverance from. Let’s look over in Romans chapter eight. Just getting a few scriptures here. I was debating whether to teach this today or Sunday morning. I’ll probably teach it again Sunday morning. So I’m rehearsing. That’s right. It won’t hurt any of us to hear it more than once.
Romans 8:15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Notice that you did not receive the spirit of slavery, again, to fear. Now, a side note here is Paul is talking about going back under the law, because the law, you know, “Oh, I did the wrong thing.” The fear of doing things opens the door to the thing itself. Our Spirit of sonship, adoption, by whom we cry out Abba, Father.
Part of the answer to fear is knowing you’re loved by God. You see, much of the fears the devil has used come in the form of condemnation, guilt, shame and intimidation, all those things. And we don’t recognize it, because it’s put in a form that we so are accustomed to our own thoughts telling us these things, that we don’t recognize that the enemy is bringing thoughts of, “Well, you’re inadequate. Well, you’re not very good at this. Well, you’re not a good speaker. You’re not a anything.” You know. The list goes on and on.
But I want you to just to hear one thing today, I don’t have to have fear. Because if that is the seed that comes into your heart today, it will create a militancy faith that says I’m going to stand against fear. I’m not going to give place to fear. What if I do give place to it? Repent and start over, because God will remember your sins and lawless deeds no more. And you want to get back up and press on. But you didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to fear.
Now, when I was teaching a lot on deliverance, one of the things that came out in one of our retreats was that after you’re delivered or saved, the enemy tries to bring back every stronghold and thought, because they’re broken, usually the moment you’re saved, But because your mind isn’t renewed and the same thoughts start coming, the spirit of bondage again unto fear tries to make you fear you’ll go back into habitual sin and keeps working on you with this fear till the door’s opened and you give place to it. And the same thing is true with any of these other areas that we break through in. The devil always comes with a counter attack. And we need to recognize that. We teach this a lot in The Healing Centre. You know, if you receive healing, and an attack comes, stand against it because it’s just the devil trying to bring back your disease. And we have to understand that that truth is broader than physical healing. You start to get a revelation of God’s covenant for finances, and you start to give and sow and move into a spirit of the grace of giving and the enemy immediately attacks your finances and makes you want to back off from your giving, because he knows if you persist and and keep acting, it will release the covenantal blessings of God. So when you first step into it, that’s when he comes. That’s the parable of the sower. The sower sows the word and Satan comes immediately.
Now let’s look in Isaiah chapter 41. When I first began the fight for my healing, this is one of the verses the Lord gave me and I’m starting to… Have you ever had that feeling like, you know, “Lord, I know that verse and, you know, thank you.” And then a couple of years later, you start to realize that you thought you knew that verse, but you’re operating contrary to it. Well, Isaiah 41:10 says, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Fear not, for I am with you.
There’s a battle over every word God speaks to you. If God is with me, how can I fear? Is He not going to know what to do in a crisis? Be not dismayed. Don’t be anxious for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And verse 13. For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you fear not. I will help you. Now just getting a hold of these verses and facing fear with them. Because I’m walking this out in the area of physical healing. The doctors reports, the turns for the worse in some areas, the setbacks, all of those things create a fear. And I have just had this wonderful release since I started addressing all those fears. They’re subtle though. It’s just the truth naturally speaking. And the doctors, you know, the doctors are, bless them. And I’m thankful for all the help they can give. But they’ve got to give you a worst case scenario, because they could be they could be sued for malpractice if they don’t tell the worst possible scenario. Well, what does that do to you when this person in authority speaks?
I had a doctor give me a diagnosis for, “I think you need a heart transplant.” And I mean, here you go. But the funny thing is it just put me over the edge. And I said no, we’re not going there. And I’m gonna go see him shortly and the last time I had an exam from him my heart was normal. And actually, in some cases now above normal. And so what if I just said, “Well, you’re the doctor, go ahead and give me a new kidney and a new heart?” I’m not suggesting that if you haven’t heard from God about something that you shouldn’t necessarily just ignore the doctor’s result or whatever. But what I am saying is words create faith or fear. I know people get really freaked out when their car repair is diagnosed at such and such. It’s gonna be $700. And they’re just “Where am I gonna get the money? How am I going to do this?” And they finally get it done. And the guy says, Well, you know, it was just this one little thing out of place here, and we don’t need to replace that thing. And you know, if you’re trusting God for your needs to be met, you don’t have to be intimidated by fear by circumstances.
God is with you. God will help. He’ll strengthen you. He’ll uphold you at the right hand of His righteousness. That’s a great phrase, because victorious living is to a large degree based on the depth of our revelation of the gift of righteousness. You approach God boldly, in direct proportion to your apprehension of your ability to stand in the presence of God without condemnation or fear or a sense of inferiority. You come to Him as your father, and as you do that, you stand on his word with Him backing you. It’s His righteousness. He’ll uphold you with his righteous right hand.
Now, turn over to Isaiah 54. Yeah, I think I will just continue this Sunday. Isaiah 54:14. In righteousness you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear. Now, do you see the relationship here? In righteousness you’ll be established. You won’t fear, so oppression won’t come near you. You will be far from it, and from terror for it shall not come near you. Established in righteousness, far from fear. In other words, there’s a relationship between being established in righteousness and being far from fear and the result is oppression and terror can’t come near you. And sometimes I just remind the devil that I’m established and righteousness, and so I’m far from oppression and from terror.
Your Redeemer. Well, it goes on in verse 15. Indeed, they shall surely assemble but not because of me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work. And I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord.
I have been convinced, since the early days of my Christian walk when I read E.W. Kenyans book, the two kinds of righteousness, that the church really does not understand righteousness. That it’s a gift of grace. It’s a participation in the divine nature. It’s the righteousness of God given to us. Romans 5:17 says that if we receive the overflowing grace of God and the gift of righteousness, we’ll reign in life. We just have to take the time to meditate in the word so that it becomes deepened within us. We oftentimes are satisfied with an intellectual comprehension of teaching. Let’s just say that the people who have been in this church over the last 20 or so years, took what they heard, and were actually walking in it, the whole state would be saved, because it would fire us up so much to know that you’re able to stand in the presence of a Holy God, and He does not condemn you. But you’ve got a newly created spirit.
Look in Hebrews 12. He talks about us coming unto Mount Zion. Hebrews 12:22, he says, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are registered in Heaven, to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of men. The spirits of just men, made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Now, he says, you’ve come to God the Judge of all. There couldn’t be a scarier concept to think about, God, the Judge of all, and he says, You have come to God, the Judge of all and he says to the company of righteous spirits made perfect. You have partaken of God’s perfection on your inside inner man, your human spirit. And he says, You’re in the presence of God, the Judge of all where the blood of Jesus speaks more powerfully than the blood of condemnation that was spoken. But this is remarkable to get into your heart. I can come before God the Judge of all. my sins and lawless deeds, he will remember no more. I can come in a full assurance of faith having my heart sprinkled by the blood of Christ. Full assurance. Confidence that if I’m going to petition him. I’ve got confidence if I’m just going to worship him and fellowship with him. I’ve got confidence because the judge of all is satisfied by the blood of His Son.
I just can’t understand how preachers can’t find something to preach. just on the rabbit trails, I could go another six weeks, you know. The blood of Jesus what a theme that is. But there’s so much in that passage, but what I want you to know is that God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men, made perfect. He puts God the Judge of all and the spirits of righteous men made perfect together. A lot of people want to make that when I get to heaven, you see. But he says, You have come. And if that wasn’t applying to you, what would you do in the face of God, the Judge of all if that wasn’t describing you’re standing with him as a new creation? So anyway, that was a little little rabbit trail.
I wanted to look at another Isaiah verse. This is just, hammer you with good news. Isaiah 43:1. But now says the Lord, Who created you oh, Jacob, and he who formed you oh Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flame scorch you. I the LORD your God the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored and I have loved you. Therefore I will give men for you and people for you. Fear not for I am with you.
Israel, you know doesn’t have a real great history of walking in perfect obedience to the covenant. People say, “Well, the Old Testament is law, the New Testament is Grace, yet there’s a great flood of revelation of grace in the Old Testament. I mean, Israel. God forgave them again and again and listened to the intercessors and did many things. If it was strictly a legalistic heart, it would have been, “You’re out here.” But, you see, God is merciful. And actually the highest revelation of God in the Old Testament is His mercy. And, actually, that’s what Jesus came to reveal, the hidden mercy of God. Because of sin changing our consciousness, we could not behold the goodness of God.
Think of this. The Pharisees trained for years and years to love God and the first commandment to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. And their whole attitude was to, when love manifested, when the mercy of God manifested, came into their presence, they rejected Him. They could not see because religion had blinded their eyes. They were so caught in human works. And you know, we do that a lot in another way. And it’s just kind of motivated by guilt, we try to perform better. In other words, if I could perform well enough, God would love me. If I could perform well enough, He’d accept me. But that’s what the Lord was trying to get away from. He wanted people just to accept his love and let him change them. And sometimes, we get that clear when we’re telling that to the lost, but we don’t get it clear ourselves.
God once spoke to me and He said, “Don’t run from me with your sin. Run to me.” Why? Because the longer I stay in condemnation, the less I’m doing to get better. So we ought to declare war on condemnation, which is what? Fear. All it is is fear. Fear of rejection by God. And then self rejection is telling myself I don’t deserve love, which is another kind of fear. So, this is kind of a major area of subtlety of warfare. Most of us don’t have a lot of crazy irrational fears, because we’ve looked to the Lord to get some freedom from that and we’re getting stronger in faith and those kinds of things and a lot of fears just drop off. But as we progress in God and insist on possessing all of God that we can have, we find subtler fears coming to us, and you don’t realize you’re even thinking them. And that’s where asking the Holy Spirit to reveal them, because he’s not going to reveal them with condemnation. He’s just going to say “There’s one.” And you can say, “Well, Lord.” And then you address it and you say, “I don’t have to have that. I have not been given the spirit of fear. I do not have a spirit of slavery again, to fear. I’m not going back into slavery of fear. I’m a child of God. My spirit cries Abba, Father.
If you think about that, he’s talking about the antidote to the fear of being rejected by God is the spirit within you that cries Abba. Because Abba is a term of intimacy. Abba is a term of family, and he says, “Here’s the cure to fear you’re gonna go back into sin or that sin’s gonna dominate you. Your Spirit says Abba Father, the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.
A theological problem is, the King James version uses the word adoption. And in our culture, adoption is something that happens to people whose natural parents for one reason or another, are not in the picture. And so they get taken into a family, but every adopted kid knows they’re adopted and they’re not really blood relatives. And the only person I know who that hasn’t affected negatively is Rae Blackburn. Because her father so doted on her and loved her that she never felt like she didn’t have a father. Now, if a fallen human being can replace the missing love of the father, how much more our Father can replace the love and make people feel like sons and daughters of God.
But we’ve got to get our minds renewed to it. Because our minds are programmed to fear the presence of God. And, you know, I know if Jesus appears to people, they get intimidated and they fall on their face and I’d probably do the same thing. But what people don’t seem to notice is every time they do that, he says, Fear not. See, we’re on the sin conscious side. We like to revel in false humility. And actually, it’s an unrenewed mind, because we were created to be welcome in his presence. We’re created to rest in the righteousness He has provided.
Oh, I read a beautiful illustration of this from a woman who was healed in about 1879, and then began a faith and healing journal. She was saying that so often, when people are looking to God for healing, they don’t feel like they can come to him, because they’re looking for the work of how far the Holy Spirit has progressed in conforming them to Christ to judge their righteousness, rather than looking to the finished work of Christ, to judge their righteousness. And that’s a very subtle thing. “Well, I just don’t feel like I’ve matured enough.” You’re not right with God by how far you’ve matured.
Your righteousness is a gift of grace. And it’s never gonna to not be, you know, because sometimes we think, “I’m saved now. I’ve got a responsibility to grow up.” Well, if you take that responsibility, it’ll hinder your growth. But if you cast that care on the Lord, Jesus said in I think it’s Matthew five, He said, which man by taking anxious thought can add one cubit to his stature? Anxiety hinders growth and fear of unworthiness is anxiety toward God and it hinders growth.
We have to get ahold of this idea that everything that brings forth change is grace working in us. The minute we tighten up, loosen up, or tighten up and get anxious and concerned about our spiritual growth, we’re stopping growth because you can only let God’s grace work in you. Well, let me say, GGod’s grace is is marvelous. He’ll work in us when we’re still striving and he’ll help us to do all kinds of things. But the goal of Christian living is to enter into rest in the Father’s love and let ministry flow out of that.
Looking at other people and their gifts, and not knowing your own gifts, is gonna cause anxiety and comparison and things that are fierce. “Well, I’m not good enough.” You see it sometimes with intercessors. Different kinds of intercessors. I was really glad when a book came out on the various types of intercessor. It listed about 12 different types. I was doing a lot of intercession seminars and meetings at one time and what you’d see is, “Gosh, I just don’t have what sister so and so has.” They were obviously a different kind of intercessor. Which the kind of they were, they did very well. But not knowing there was different kinds and different ways God gives people for intercession, they’re feeling like if I don’t do what Cindy Jacobs does, I’m not a good intercessor or if I don’t do what some other person in our area and social setting do…
Then you don’t have a lot of dreams and visions. Well, some of the some of the best intercessors don’t have a lot of dreams and visions. Intercessors who do are pretty quick to share them and usually have them in a large amount. And so you can get intimidated by that. Well, of course, I was kind of relieved to hear Dutch Sheets when ministering with Chuck Pierce. Chuck has about a vision a minute, you know, and I don’t get visions hardly all. I do. They’re pretty significant, but I don’t get many. And there’s the clear distinction between the apostolic and prophetic. Now, that isn’t that an apostle cannot be a prophet as well. I’ve noticed a lot of apostles are teachers.
This was a verse The Lord gave me at the beginning of my battle. Isaiah 43. As a promise. When you go through the waters I will be with you. Did you notice that He doesn’t say you won’t have the trials, but he’ll be with you. Yeah, when you do. How about if? Let’s put an if in there. No. I’ve learned that he’s got it right. When you walk through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. And when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned. Nor shall the flame scorch you. So He promises that you will go through hard times, but he’ll be with us. And He has redeemed and we should not fear. For I have redeemed you. I think God is calling the things that are not as though they were.
Another verse I want to look at is Luke 1, which illustrates this principle. Quite an amazing prophetic passage. Luke 1. This is Zechariah filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesying. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Christ isn’t born yet. And he’s still got to grow up to the age of 30 before he can minister. Yet the prophetic word is he has visited and redeemed his people. Well, God is prophesying what’s to be in the form of a declared statement.
That was just a side thought. But what I want you to see is as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear.
The intention of God in the New Covenant through Christ is that we might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our lives. As the seed of Abraham, we are to be delivered from the hands of our enemies, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him. That word before there is an interesting word. It means before the face of someone. So you’re called before the face of God in righteousness and holiness.
I can get excited. He made a covenant swore an oath to this end. The more I read the Bible, the more I realize I’ve never read the Bible, because the the just reeks of good news. Part of my cry is, “Lord, you’ve done all this for us. Somebody’s got to enter into it.” I’m volunteering. Amen. Well, that’s kind of the wild crew that seems to want all that they can get. Delivered from the hand of our enemies and is fear our enemy? Yes, it is. It’s under the ones who had the power death.
So anyway, I just wanted to this morning, just wanted to kind of open this up. Give you some scriptures to think about. I found it very, very helpful. I may re preach it Sunday morning because it will take time to to sink in. And I believe the Spirit will do a work in our hearts to reveal these things, so that we become tuned to the enemy’s tactic against us. And it’ll be especially relevant to those who have a serious healing need or something like that, because the devil waters down our faith by getting us to fear. Fear tolerated is faith contaminated.
